This book is a wonderful blend of storytelling. It's light on plot but very rich in character. At times it is poetic and spiritual and other times very amusing. Declan, is one of the most wonderful, entertaining characters A quiet but memorable book.

This book is an ode to the Pacific Ocean and the human spirit - particularly the spirit of those of us with the blessing (and curse) to be born from the PNW. The style is lyrical and poetic in a beautiful hybrid that is clearly influenced by both Irish and First Nations story-telling complete with tall tales and fantastical moments side by side with the mundane. I couldn't put it down, yet it took me forever to finish reading because I kept rereading passages over and over and sometimes out loud to admire their beauty and cadence.

The Plover is the story of Declan, who means to flee society and sail around the world with only his own self and his beloved author, Edmund Burke, for company. Starting with a persistent gull (yes, another sentient bird!) he is obliged to take on passenger after passenger and has to adjust both his physical and mental space to make room for each one. From a father and his injured daughter to a larger-than-life woman and a singing ship hand, each subsequent passenger challenges Declan's introspective life. Though the humans on the journey are tormented, I always felt the writer's kindness -- he treats both his characters and the reader with compassion.

Quotes

“The poor Irish. Brilliant idiots. Charming fools. Engaging boneheads. Enthralling nutcases. Entrancing charlatans. Alluring disasters. We are the rocks and reefs of the human sea, tumultuous outcrops, magnets for wrecks. The peaks of mountains you cannot see... Stony and defiant of the prevailing currents until we are eventually worn down and dissolved. Sometimes soaked and sometimes dry as a bone. Hammered by tides and grimly standing our ground against the pounding... The poor Irish. An island people... A muddy rock soaked by rain and tide and blood. From which we fled for the farthest shore. We leave, we left, we have been left. Into the waters of the world. Each of us an island.” – Brian Doyle, The Plover